Love's Faded Memory
by Sokai
Summary: What do you do when your world's gone, and your love lost? Start over. . . .


**Love's Faded Memory**

**By: Sokai**

**Disclaimer:** I, Sokai, do not claim ownership to the workings of W.I.T.C.H. -- I leave _that_ honor up to Elisabetta Gnone. However, I can and DO claim to own this story and its inspired ideas FROM said series.

Note: _Hmm…so lately, I've apparently lost my mojo…or, at least, people "ignore" me now with my latest stories. I've cried myself to sleep every night over it…. No, not really. LoL Anyway! It's most likely (and hopefully lol) cuz a lot of you are busy with wrapping up school and the like and haven't had time to review. In which case, it's completely understandable. _

_In any event, this one came to me in a dream, so here it/I am, with its prologue. Hopefully you'll find it intriguing, eh?

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This story/prologue was written/created in April 2009._

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Noise.

_Noises_, rather.

That's what she gradually began to hear all of a sudden, and it was honestly becoming a bit bothersome, as it continually broke through the former silence which had so effortlessly enveloped her senses.

Well, how _else_ was she supposed to get any rest, otherwise?

Although, come to think on it, it honestly sort of felt as though she'd been doing nothing _but_ for perhaps even ages, almost as though that was what her life merely consisted of.

Strange.

Of course, it could have been a lot easier to ponder the notion a bit more soothingly, if it hadn't been for two currently pressing issues: the fierce, pounding headache which was now beginning to hold her erstwhile peaceful mind hostage . . . and the curious, almost breathless whispers feverously reverberating into the eardrums of her right ear.

Who was making such a racket like that??

Actually, to be fair, the hushed voice of the unknown culprit wasn't the only thing carrying sounds into . . . well, wherever she currently was, something which also perplexed her. There were other, disembodied voices echoing elsewhere, as well, with distinct bustling, while what sounded like various footsteps were scuttling back and forth with near unison.

And then, there was that odd, rhythmic _beeping_, which repetitively went off with a soft timidness somewhere to her left.

Great.

She now had an irritating beeping, no matter how relatively quiet it was, going on in her left ear, while an _obnoxious individual_ kept speaking into her right.

Simply wonderful.

No chance of getting any more rest, now.

And what was so damned important for that person to keep on about, anyway?? Couldn't they see that she was sleeping??

Or, at least, _used_ to be, as she felt herself becoming more and more awake now.

Well, since she was now more or else conscious, she might as well get up, perhaps even to especially tell this loudmouthed individual(and all the others lurking about, apparently) to shut it.

Of course, it would help if she'd finally open her eyes first, though.

Doing so curiously felt like an honest chore, however, as she felt her eyes moving lightly underneath her closed eyelids, where the continued darkness she'd kept "seeing" dwelled.

She must have _really_ been knocked out for a while, after all, then, if she couldn't have managed something as simple as that . . . although, the rest of her body curiously began to feel just as lethargic, now that she was actively trying to move it.

Nonetheless, she pressed on, and eventually, succeeded.

And the moment she had, she instantly regretted it.

Everything was so ever-loving _bright!_

She had only managed to open the both of her eyes just a crack, and it was apparently enough to nearly blind her. And it didn't help that nearly everything where she was was completely _white_, or naturally light colored.

If only she could fall back asleep. . . .

But, since she was unfortunately awake now, she merely decided to continue on her increasingly, strangely difficult trek to sit up. Last time she'd checked, wasn't getting rest supposed to _recharge_ one's proverbial batteries, not _drain_ them further??

She continued to ponder this as she kept her eyes closed for just a little while longer, before facing the searing brightness of her . . . admittedly unfamiliar surroundings once more, and merely concentrated upon rising upright. However, all she _could_ manage, after a few minutes or so of trying, was making the honestly stiff fingers of her right, slightly clammy hand to twitch sporadically .

And that was when she began to realize that that same appendage felt curiously heavy (well, of _course_ it did, as did the rest of her body), almost as though weighed down by something . . . or _someone?_

For, at the same instant she had blindly succeeded in lightly wiggling her fingers, the ongoing noise in her right ear had abruptly ceased.

If she had known that that was all it would take to finally shut the individual apparently beside her up, then she might have (_eventually_ managed) to do so from the start.

But . . . _were_ they really holding her hand? If so, what _for?_

She resigned herself to finding out . . . which unfortunately meant reopening her eyes in order to do so.

". . . . Y-You. . . . Is she waking up? _Are_ you, finally??" she vaguely listened to the unknown offender (for the first, real time, being that she had decidedly tried to block them out, and all they had been saying before), apparently male, judging by his now louder vocals, speak with fatigue riddled within his voice . . . as well as . . . _hope?_

'_Finally??' Apparently talking so much until it drove me __bonkers__ and woke me up was this guy's plan all along, after all_, she groggily thought for the first time since having regained consciousness, vaguely feeling her brows begin to lightly furrow with unconscious effort.

And then, with forced bravery, she at last reopened her greatly sensitive eyes with pained slowness, and struggled to keep them open for good this time, as she gazed blankly up at the bland, white ceiling above her.

She _really_ didn't recognize a thing about it . . . nor the voice of the male beside her, whom she could then hear gasping excitedly, before gently squeezing the hand he continued to hold . . . a bit unwanted, on her part, at that.

"O-Oh, my _God!_ You _are_ awake!! _W-Wait_ for me -- I'm going to go get the doctor!!" said the male with renewed vigor now laced within his previously haggard sounding voice, and she felt him at last (and thankfully so) release her hand before listening to him promptly rise to his feet.

It was a slow movement, but she'd managed to turn her head to the right toward his direction, so that she could at last gaze upon him properly, however had just missed sight of him as he vanished behind the white, elongated door which was now slowly sliding closed.

Now, she _definitely_ did not recognize that door, for sure.

_What_ was going on??

_. . . . 'Doctor??' Why would I need a doctor, for?? s_he pondered silently, exhaling shakily in gradual fatigue, which suddenly began to return to her. She slowly closed her adjusting eyes briefly before reopening them, and then looked down towards her right, slightly pale hand, which was lying rather limply upon what she then realized to be a bed.

It suddenly and strangely felt a bit . . . barren and certainly more cool now, without the previous shelter the unidentified man had been providing to it.

. . . . What an odd notion.

She began to silently wonder what that meant, continuing to gaze thoughtfully at her bare, newly unattended appendage, when the large door abruptly swung back open, ushering forth a platoon of new individuals she not at _all_ recognized.

She could then hear the familiar, yet unknown and ongoing beeping to her left suddenly sounding a lot faster now, at the same time she began to feel her heart pounding more mercilessly behind her breastplate, as the frenzied party effortlessly swarmed around and descended upon her.

Who _were_ all of them, seriously, and why were they all (for the most part, anyway) now beginning to cry as they continued to stare at her??

"Oh, thank _God_ for bringing back my precious girl!!" gushed a man standing nearest to her, standing over her body for a moment, before promptly bending forward to envelope her within his strong arms. Had _he_ been the one speaking to her before, while holding onto her hand??

No, it couldn't have been, as _this_ man's voice was significantly deeper, with faint huskiness, while the other male's had been much lighter and younger sounding.

Regardless, the fact that this older man was now touching and holding onto her (for dear life, it admittedly felt like) was what was currently plaguing her the most, and she began to wish to high Heaven that she could muster up enough strength to somehow push him off.

However, it seemed as though her desire had been partially granted in a way, as the emotionally flustered male suddenly released her right then on his own, and gazed at her with profusely watery, unfamiliar dark brown eyes. He then took her hand, the same one the other male (who hadn't seemed to return, she'd noticed) had cradled within his own.

It somehow did not feel as . . . _significant_ this time.

She managed to tear her widened eyes away from the bronze haired and moustache-donning man, despite her mounting, near paralyzing fear, and then focused her scattered attention onto the quartet of young, seemingly teenage women crowded eagerly around her.

They, too, did not ring any bells of familiarity for her, as she peered into each of their various colored eyes with distinct intimidation.

"Glad to have you back, sunshine!" playfully teased a curvaceous, tanned brunette with a teary wink directly before her.

"You don't know how _worried_ we've all been for you!" added a rather gangly, pigtailed girl to her left, her saffron hued cheeks growing more and more rosy in between her loud sobs of joy.

"I was beginning to think that I'd never see those lovable brown eyes of my best friend ever again," remarked a spectacle wearing, mocha tinted and raven haired female with soft warmness to her right, her own chocolate colored eyes shimmering with constantly renewed tears.

_Her_ eyes were . . . brown? Why could she not even recall something so simple??

"Don't you _ever_ scare us like that again, or else I'll _really_ give you something to sleep for days over!!" a fiery, blue eyed blonde, the tallest of the bunch, unexpectedly scolded next to the brunette standing in front of her. Although the facial expression upon her peaches and cream complexion was rather firm and strict (a sight which greatly increased the upset of the formerly unconscious young woman), her voice betrayed her, as it was undeniably shaky and wracked with emotion.

She watched helplessly as the quintet of unanimous strangers all began to laugh warmheartedly at the sunlit haired girl's last comment, the lot of them simultaneously wiping away their previously shed tears.

Why was that _funny??_ Why were they even all here?? And what was this about apparently "sleeping for days??"

Most importantly, why was _none_ of it making any sense to her??

She _had_ to get out of there, _wherever_ she was, before she completely lost it.

And so, without any warning to the unknown party, she suddenly yanked her right hand away from the older man with more force than she had perhaps intended, and that she hadn't known she could possess due to her current state.

She chose to ignore the people's collected gasps, of alarm most likely, as she began to will herself to rock back and forth, in order to at last sit up and inevitably leave the premises.

"W-Whoa, now! W-What's the matter, Baby Girl?? It's just _us!_ It's your family and friends!" the moustache-man shakily tried to reassure her, his eyes becoming visibly wounded by the perplexing sight.

'_Baby Girl?' I'm __not__ your Baby Girl, you jerk! I don't even __know__ you -- __Any__ of you!!_ she screamed within her head and yearned so much to do so verbally . . . however, terrifyingly found that she could not, unable to find her voice.

_What_ was going on with her????

"Y-Yeah, calm down! Guys, listen to her heart monitor! It's going _berserk!"_ cried the pigtailed, skinny girl within avid concern, moving closer.

The frazzled, bed-ridden girl finally took a gander to her left more properly now, and began to look at what the others were now gazing at, as well. A large, soft beige colored machine, erected up against the plain wall stared back at her, its dark face repeatedly featuring sporadic and wavy, green colored lines streaming across it. It was then that she began to refocus her attentions upon that incessant beeping from before, sounding faster and faster still, as it emitted from out of the electronic instrument.

At last, she had found the culprit.

None of that mattered anymore, however, as she had to continue on within her fight to break free from the apparently invisible restraints once and for all, and get as _far_ away from the people continually surrounding her as possible.

Again, the door suddenly flew open just then, this time with two older females, and a young male trailing slightly behind them. The profoundly upset and confused girl stopped her struggling for just a moment then, as her apparently brown eyes momentarily locked with the _drastically_ surprised green, almost mesmerizing orbs of the newly entered male.

She was most assuredly confident that she had never met him before, either, just like the others . . . however, there was still actually something, if only slightly, _familiar_ about the brunet . . . about his _eyes_. . . .

Had it been _he_ to have had kept whispering into her ear, and holding onto her hand so tightly earlier?

"I-It's all right now!! It's _okay!_ You're safe . . . you're _safe_," said the first female newcomer within a soothing, yet authoritative voice. And, for whatever, reason, the flustered girl felt compelled to comply . . . if only for the time being.

She looked up at her with curious, surprised and uneasy eyes as the woman promptly took the moustache-man's place and hovered over her body, tentatively beginning to, it seemed like, examine her.

Was this dark brown haired woman the doctor the young man had mentioned earlier before he'd gone to presumably fetch her? It certainly seemed that way, what with the way she strategically surveyed the younger girl's body within a routine sort of fashion.

Loose strands of her side bun updo lightly fell onto her caramel skin toned neck, as she straightened her posture and pulled away from the other girl slightly. She then gave a small, calming smile, gazing down at her with inquisitive, hazel colored eyes.

". . . . Feeling a bit better now? Seems so, as the electrocardiograph next to you there has calmed down some," she spoke within a friendly, composed air, blindly reaching into one of the pockets of the long, white color jacket she was currently wearing.

_Electrocardiograph?_ Is _that_ was that beep machine was called? Regardless, the woman's observation apparently held true, as her apparent patient also took notice of the less frantic sound patterns emitting from it. She took a deep, steady breath, feeling her heart no longer racing as madly as before, either.

"My name is Doctor Ismene Hickey; I will be your assigned physician until you're well again, all right?" the beautiful, hazel eyed apparent professional revealed to her, before pulling out what looked like a tiny, black and silver microphone of sorts from her pocket with one hand, and gently cupped the girl's chin with the other.

Dr. Hickey immediately began to make a shushing sound with her full lips before renewing her smile at the girl, who now had resumed her immense flustered actions from before upon seeing this.

"H-Hey . . . shh . . . shh. . . . It's all right. This is just an ophthalmoscope. All I'm going to do now is simply use it to look into your eyes to make sure that they're all right. _Trust_ me, please . . . I wouldn't hurt you," she explained with a lulling air a bit, gently patting the nervous girl upon the shoulder, before resuming her previous efforts.

Meanwhile, the _other_ older, and naturally tawny hued woman who had entered with the doctor and the younger man had then piped up, speaking for the first time since having arrived.

"Wh . . . w-what's wrong with my daughter, Dr. Hickey? Why does she seem s-so . . . _discombobulated_ or even . . . _fearful_ . . . l-like she doesn't even _know_ any of us??" she asked with a broken sob, trepidation leaking within her own voice. She stood, rather tall in height and lithe, near the girl's covered feet and beside the moustache-man, who then cradled her within his arms in comfort and stroked her shoulder length, wavy and raven tinted locks.

'_Daughter?' Is she talking about __me__? Am I . . . this woman's daughter??_ the dazed and unsure young woman momentarily wondered in silence, a strange and unexpected pang of sympathy briefly flooding her senses as she gazed towards the older, furiously sobbing female.

Dr. Hickey immediately tensed up slightly, if only for a moment, at this (an action her patient nonetheless noticed, if the others within the room had not), before pulling the apparent ophthalmoscope away from the patient's face and put it back into her jacket pocket.

She straightened up and turned to face the sea of individuals before them, pausing a bit before responding.

"_Well_, Doctor?? Please answer my wife's question! _Is_ there something the matter with our daughter??" the moustache-man pressed, doing his best to soothe the crying woman who was apparently his wife. His dark brown eyes reflected unspoken fears, of perhaps a nightmare he silently hoped would not ever come true, as he and the rest of the party present gazed expectantly at the female doctor.

Finally, with a heavy, slow exhale, Dr. Hickey complied, a notably pensive expression now marring her light chocolate countenance.

". . . . I hadn't wished to say anything to you before, Mr. and Mrs. Collins, only because your daughter had been within her coma for the last four days," she began as tentatively as possible, abundantly realizing the severe delicateness of the overall topic and situation. "That is to say, I hadn't wished to unnecessarily alarm you with anything which may not have been the case. . . . However, based upon her current reactions of having all of you around her, coupled by your astute observation, Mrs. Collins, I. . . ."

". . . . You, _what?_ Just spit it _out_, Dr. Hickey, _whatever_ it is! We _just_ want to know what's happened to our baby!!" the one known as Mrs. Collins abruptly lashed out at the doctor before her, who'd suddenly, although tactfully, trailed off within her explanation.

She let out yet another sigh, taking no offense to the other woman's growing ire and upset, as she was quite understanding and used to such outbursts and reactions from many a family member of her numerous patients of the past . . . when, and unfortunately _if_ the situation had called for it, that is.

And this one, sadly, quite certainly did.

" . . . . The MRIs which recently came back from the lab showed . . . a rather large amount of brain damage to your daughter's temporal lobes and hippocampus," Dr. Hickey hollowly revealed, lightly wincing at the collected, sharp gasps that promptly erupted within the room. While she wasn't so certain that every last one of them was familiar with the terminology she had used, she _was_, however, positive that that did not matter, as most likely the only phrase they had each focused upon was "_brain damage_."

"Wh . . . What does that _mean_, exactly, Doctor? I mean, _specifically??"_ asked the pigtailed girl with a quivering voice, her flax hued face scrunching up within the onset of renewed tears, this time due to her mounting fear rather than her previous joy.

Dr. Hickey turned her attention onto the younger girl and nodded slightly in acknowledgment, before answering with a small frown.

". . . . It _means_, Hay Lin, that the head trauma she'd suffered from her fall has caused damage to her episodic and declarative memory -- Or, _rather_ . . . that it is _very_ possible that Will now has what is referred to as . . . 'Retrograde amnesia,' as a result," the physician at last completely revealed, with a heavy heart, watching the various, ongoing and gut wrenching reactions that now began to unfold before her.

Her sickly patient, meanwhile, who had suddenly felt as though she were within a severe daydream, from the time the doctor had finished examining her eyes up to that particular point, then began to feel herself sinking increasingly into it more and more upon hearing the startling news.

. . . . _'Will?'_ Was _that_ her name?? Wasn't that a _boy's_ name, though? Did that mean, then, she was really a _male_, instead?

No, that couldn't be, or else why would have everyone surrounding her continue to refer to her as a "_she_" the entire time?

Regardless, it was a rather odd name to bestow onto a girl, and she felt a bit regrettable that it was apparently now _hers_.

More importantly, however, was what Dr. Hickey had said last about her:

_Retrograde amnesia. . . ._

_Amnesia?? Is __that__ why I can't seem to remember anything about myself, __or__ these people??_ she thought with numbness, all of her senses seeming to shut down and die away, as she could not feel any sort of emotion anymore.

She also found that she could no longer _hear_, it seemed, as her brown eyes lazily trailed from person to person, watching some of them cry, while the majority of them apparently shouted and hollered with flailing appendages towards the rather stoic doctor.

She could _see_ them all just fine; however, no sound was traveling to her ears to let her listen to their cries of apparent anguish and shock. And, strangely enough, this did not bother her within the slightest, as her continual stupor prevented it.

It wasn't until her eyes landed upon the young brunet standing furthest away from her and the rest of the crowd, closest to and in front of the door, that she curiously managed to feel her heart careen with what felt like . . . _sadness??_

She watched him stand there for a few moments, green eyes downcast and glazed over, arms and body slack, before he slowly and unexpectedly began to slide down to the floor within a defeated, crumpled heap.

"_No_. . . ." she saw his lips move to formulate the distinct word as he kept his gaze downward, suddenly wishing she could comfort the young man in some way . . . or that she could at least get to look into his eyes again, like before.

A sudden, sharp pain sliced through her head just then, and she promptly reached up to cradle her head within her hands as the fatigue she'd been feeling earlier swiftly increased, before at last claiming her once more . . . with the last thing she saw being those haunting, emerald eyes, _after_ all, as they looked upon her with undeniable alarm . . . and _care_.

**-- End of Prologue

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**(A.N. Yay. First chapter thingies are fun, aren't they? ….Not really, no. LoL Easy or difficult to come out, I've never really been fond of 'em, myself. Mainly cuz they're usually long. Grr. Damn you, prologue! BEING the prologue, it was SUPPOSED to be pretty short. Well, not SUPER short, but maybe like, two or three pages, just to be a teaser or sorts for what's to come, ya know? But then THIS eight-pager happened, instead. LoL Might as well have made IT the first chapter, instead, as well. Ah, well! But I'm kinda pleased with it, though, really. Got out all I'd wanted to, and didn't reveal it was Will till the very end as planned…even though I'm sure you all knew it was her from the get, ANYWAY. LoL **

**Sorry, too, if some of you were all, "Gwah?? o.O" about the big words the good doc Hickey was throwing everyone's way – MY doc does all the time, at least, and sometimes, at least, I'm usually looking at her like she's insane when she does. LoL Anyways, she still backtracked and explained to them, and thus, you, anyhow, so it's okay. LoL I like her name; first one means "knowledge," and her last name means, basically, "descendant of a healer." And you know, being a doctor and all, I thought I'd make it relative. Yay. LoL**

**What else, what else…I think that's it, really. Can't imagine anyone being confused by this prologue. Well, besides wondering what's happened to Will in the first place to get amnesia, anyway. So yeah. I hope this one gets reviews, and my mojo comes back. LoL)**


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